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| 8/3/26 17th NW & NW Market, Ballard neighborhood |
Although I probably did ride it, I don’t remember the
Bubbleator when it debuted at Seattle’s Century 21 World’s Fair in 1962. I wasn’t
quite four then, so I don’t recall anything about the fair (though my sibs have
told me I was cranky through most of it). What I do fondly remember is riding
the Bubblelator regularly years later, as the transparent acrylic sphere continued
to carry Food Circus (later called the Center House) visitors up and down between
two floors for nearly 20 years.
Apparently the original Bubbleator is somewhere in Des
Moines. An exact replica, however, now stands on the roof of Ballard Realty.
Realtor and building owner Ray Poletti built it himself at a cost of $200,000
(conservative estimate, he says). He used the original as a model.
I can’t decide which is more astonishing: That he was able
to replicate it so precisely or that he wanted to in the first place. (Read the
Seattle Times article linked above for more details; it also talks about
other odd Seattle memorabilia.) In any case, how could I resist
sketching it?
Standing at the busy, very noisy intersection in downtown
Ballard, I imagined the one important detail missing from that exact replica: A
young woman dressed in a Jetsons-style outfit who operated the Bubbleator (the
article says Poletti bought one of those original outfits at a consignment shop
and is working on replicating it). And by “operated,” I mean she opened and
closed the doors, distributed crowds inside the bubble, and pushed buttons to
make it go up or down. As a preteen, I thought it was a pretty cool job for a young woman.
